Hazardous leaks: Gas explosions in two houses injure 11

Leaking cylinders exploded in Rawalpindi and Islamabad houses

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: At least 11 people were injured and three cars were damaged due to explosions caused by gas leakage at two houses in the twin cities on Sunday.

Early on Sunday morning, eight members of a family at a house in Dhoke Hassu in Pirwadhai received burn injuries when accumulated gas from a leak exploded.

“At around 8:15am on we heard a loud bang from the ground floor of the two-storey house,” said Muhammad Yousaf, a neighbour of the victims in Mohalla Hafiz.

He added that when they reached the house, they saw that the doors and windows of all three of its rooms were shattered. A motorcycle standing on the porch had also been thrown out into the street after the blast.

The blast was so loud that its sound was heard for as far as two kilometres. A large number of people also gathered outside the house

According to the Rescue 1122, Arshad Nazir and his family had been living on the ground floor of the two-storey house.

Rescuer workers said that they had received a call at around 8:30am that a blast had taken place. When they reached the spot, rescuers said they found Nazir, his wife and their six children with burn.

Farooq Butt, spokesperson for Rescue 1122, said that a gas cylinder had been placed in the room where the family was sleeping. He said that they believed that the cylinder kept leaking throughout the night and when one of the family members tried to turn on the gas heater in the room, the accumulated gas ignited explosively causing the blast.

The injured were identified as 35-year-old Nazir who suffered 40 per cent burns, 33-year-old Samina who suffered 45 per cent burns, 13-year-old Ibrahim who suffered 35 per cent burns, 10-year-old Dua who suffered 40 per cent burns, eight-year-old Amina who suffered 20 per cent burns, six-year-old Fatima who suffered 40 per cent burns, three-year-old Hayat who suffered 10 per cent burns, and seven-month-old Mustafa who suffered five per cent burns. They were rushed to the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi where after treatment their condition was described
as stable.

Three injured in Islamabad

A powerful explosion, caused by a gas cylinder blowing up, injured at least three people in a house near Chatha Bakhtawar on Sunday afternoon.

Three cars and a nearby house were also damaged in the blast.

Police said the house, located on Al-Syed Avenue opposite the COMSATS campus near Chatha Bakhtawar, belonged to Colonel (retd) Hassan Syed.

At around 3pm, a gas cylinder in the house exploded injuring his wife and son were injured in the blast. Another woman in the neighbourhood was also injured by the blast.

The blast also caused a fire in the house.

Officials of the Capital Development Authority’s fire department said that they were called in after police spotted a fire in their security cameras. Officials said two fire tenders were dispatched to respond to the emergency and they quickly extinguished the fire.

“The fire was caused by the cylinder blast in the house,” a fire department official said adding, “We shifted a [injured] woman to the hospital.”

He further said that the house was badly damaged by the explosion and that such was its force that it smashed the window panes of a neighbouring building as well.

Police later confirmed that at three people had been injured in the explosion.

In addition to the fire tenders, teams from the SNGPL and the bomb disposal squad also responded to the explosion.

Earlier on Friday, a blast due to gas leakage had killed at least three persons and injured another three in a house in PWD Colony.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2017.